Meeting in the Night
by Goth-leaf1
Summary: A Borrower's number one rule is never let a human see you. But sometimes the best things can happen when a rule is broken.


One thing screamed in Emil's mind as he faced the giant monster above him: A Borrower must never be seen. How many times had Lukas repeated that rule to him? How many times had he groaned at the warnings and reminded his brother that he was no longer a child and could take care of himself? Well now, shortly after being seperated from the others, he had already gotten careless and been spotted by a human.

The human in front of him loomed over the borrower. To him Emil must have been only a few inches tall. He could easily pick him up and crush him with a single hand. Emil knew the stories of borrowers meeting their end at those awful fists. He mentally shook the gruesome thought out of his head and focus on the human standing before him. By the looks of the boy's young but mature face, the human had to be near his age. That was the first thing that slipped into his mind. He had never seen a borrower or human his own age before and it threw him off a bit. Next, he began to take in the human's features. He had choppy brown hair that cupped his cheeks and large eyebrows. The hair's shade of brown matched the shade of those intense eyes that stared down at the borrower so hard that it froze Emil to his core. _Think Emil!_ A voice said inside him said. _The only thing worse than being seen is caught._

He was on a kitchen counter next to a loaf of bread and sugar and salt containers. He couldn't hide. He doubted that the human would wait for him to find a path down so making it to the floor was out. His mind tumbled and reached for any possibilities on how to make it out of this experience alive, but it was hard to think with the human only standing a few feet away. They continued their staring at each other, frozen in stance, waiting for the other to make the first move. Apparently, the human grew bored.

Without any warnings or signs, a limb shot out towards Emil. He only had time to think giant hand before it grabbed him. Rough flesh hit and covered him and digits curled around his body tightly, making him lose all sense of balance. The ground that had been below his feet a moment ago had disappeared. The hand pulled him away from the counter to-- what Emil guess-- the human's face. With a motion that had Emil laying on his back, the hand uncurled around him revealing the boy's face. Fingers from the other hand started to poke and prod at Emil's body.

"What are you?" The boy said loudly, causing Emil to flinch and realize he was trembling. He was trap. In a human's hand. He thought about his brother's face when he realized the raven would get to Emil before he could. He would never see his family again. They wouldn't even know what happened to him. Tears began to threaten to spill from his eyes at that thought. The fingers stopped prodding and retreated and the palm he laid on curled around him securely.

"Your crying."

Emil realized that it wasn't the hand or his fear that caused him to shake anymore. He was sobbing. He closed his eyes and covered his face with his knees. Shame filled inside of him for crying in front of the human but he couldn't stop. Since the first time since he had fallen from the raven's talons and realized that he was nowhere near home, he hadn't let himself cry. Not when he had to escape feral cats and hungry rats. Not when he was sure he was going to die from starvation. He kept his emotions bottled up inside of him. But now that the lid was loose and all of his emotions came pouring out.

The palm lowered sightly and pressed Emil against soft fabric.

"It's alright. I won't hurt you. Your safe." The human whispered softly.

A new sob came out at those words and Emil buried his face into the fabric. He felt the chest expand and contract with every breath and barely heard a soft beat from within. He focused on those things as he rode out his tears. Soon he was drawing in a shaky breath in time with the boy's. He laid limply against the chest, giving in to exhaustion and whatever the human had in store for him. Perhaps sensing Emil's defeat or feeling him calm down, the hand tightened and drew him back towards his face.

"Can you talk?" He asked. His face was as unreadable to Emil now than in the beginning. Judging by his tone one would think he talked to miniature people often. Emil nodded, fully giving up the rules and wishing he could sleep. His stomach reminded him that sleep wasn't the only thing they needed. The corner of the human's lips lifted into a smirk, but Emil couldn't see any malice in it.

"Hungry?" Emil nodded at this too. The human's eyes washed over the kitchen, probably realizing that they could indeed spare some food for a person with a stomach smaller than a fingernail.

"I'll give you food if you tell me your name. Mine is Leon." _Leon, huh._ Emil stomach rumbled and his mind felt to heavy from the lack of sleep and crying to reason about how much trouble he was about to get into.

"Emil." He said as loud as his voice could, considering how long he had been crying it wasn't really loud, but the human Leon heard and nodded.

"Nice to meet you Emil. We're going to be great friends." He said with a small smile.

 _Friends_. The word felt so foreign to him. He only had a family; Lukas, Mathias, Berwald and Tino, and their children: Peter and Erland. But he never had a friend before. He had secretly always wanted one, but a human as a friend? How crazy. Emil stared up at Leon's face a long time, trying to see any malice or reasons to lie to him about such a thing. He couldn't find any.

Emil gave a tiny smile and nodded. A part of him felt tremendously relieved that he didn't have to be alone anymore.

"A borrower, huh? How many of you are there?" Leon asked, his voice vibrated through his chest where Emil was sitting on. Why Leon insisted on touching him all the time was beyond him, but he was already getting use to the feeling of it and had found himself leaning into the warmth of the palm behind him moments ago. Hopefully, Leon hadn't noticed.

"I don't know. I only ever seen my family. There is seven of us, including me. Mathias, my brothers idiotic boyfriend, believes there are more of us around somewhere." Emil said, giving in at not leaning onto the palm. But he isn't enjoying it, he told himself. He rubbed his eyes, wondering how much longer they were going to stay up. Eating and drinking had perked him up earlier, but he could feel all his energy seeping away.

"Where is your family? Are they here?" Emil sighed at reaching the topic that he didn't want to talk about but knew it was inevitable when Leon started asking questions after his meal.

"No, they are at my home. Or at least they were when I had left."

"Why did you leave?" Leon asked in a quiet voice. The concern in his tone shocked Emil. He picked at his fingers as he told about the raven and how lucky he was to have fallen into a lake instead of the ground. Leon listened quietly and Emil ended up telling him about his journey after his fall. By the end his mouth was dry but some tension he hadn't realized he had been carrying slipped away.

"Wow, you fought cats? I never thought of them being dangerous before."

"Well that's because your huge. If you weren't they would try to eat you too." Emil huffed.

Leon chuckled and ruffled the top of Emil's head with a finger. "I'm not big, you're just small. It's hard to believe someone as delicate as you could even be live on your own."

"I am not delicate!" Emil screeched, while batting the finger away. Of course he lost and the finger pinned him to the chest. "Jerk!"

"Yes, you are delicate." Leon said. He moved his whole hand onto Emil, picking up the wriggling figure and pulled himself up. Emil was about to pick up their argument, when a finger rubbed his side. Immediately, he began shaking and tried to get away.

"Stop. Stop it." He said in between laughs and squeals. When ever he managed to push the finger off of him, it would come back tickling a different place. Very soon, Emil was in tears,clutching his side, and screaming about almost losing his bladder. Only then did Leon's fingers retreated and Emil rode out the last giggles.

"Jerk." He said loudly.

Leon opened his mouth, but closed it when Emil let out a long yawn. He yawned too, causing Emil to yawn again. Without meaning to he curled up in the palm, letting his eyelids droop.

"Tired?"

Emil nodded and the palm lowered him gently to a pillow that shook when Leon left the bed. With a click, darkness engulfed the room and Leon climbed back in bed. He turned over to Emil and blew on the small figure.

"Stop that." Emil said groggily.

"Hey, Emil." Leon said softly. "Don't worry about your family. I'll help you find them, alright?"

Emil looked up at Leon and nodded tiredly. He silently promised himself to thank Leon better in the morning. The thought of Leon helping him look made Emil so happy, but he didn't think he had any strength left to show it.

"Goodnight Emil."

"Goodnight Leon."

For the first time in many nights, Emil fell asleep with a smile on his face.


End file.
